The tale has been told that Rascal Felix Cavaliere heard The Olympics' recording on a New York City radio station and the group added it to their concert repertoire, using the same lyrics and virtually the same arrangement as The Olympics' version. Co-producer Tom Dowd captured this live feel on their 1966 recording, even though the group did not think the performance held together well. "Good Lovin'" rose to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the spring of 1966 and represented the Young Rascals' first real hit.

The Rascals performing "Good Lovin'" during their 2013 Once Upon a Dream show, the video screen projecting familiar lines from the song's build-up and chorus.

The Grateful Dead released "Good Lovin'" as a single in 1978, but it failed to chart.

"Good Lovin'" was the title song of a 2008 album by Australian singer David Campbell.

A popular version was by the Grateful Dead, who made it a workhorse of their concert rotation, appearing almost every year from 1969 on.[2] It was sung in their early years during the 1960s by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and later by Bob Weir. The Weir rendition was recorded for the group's 1978 Shakedown Street album and came in for a good amount of criticism: Rolling Stone said it "feature[d] aimless ensemble work and vocals that Bob Weir should never have attempted."[3]

The Rascals' "Good Lovin'" was used in 1983 the film The Big Chill. The false ending was used for dramatic effect, in which the character Chloe says about the character who committed suicide, while the song is playing in the background, "Alex and I made love the night before he died, it was fantastic." Everyone in the car with her is surprised by the comment, which ends at the exact moment of the pause in the song.

It was also featured in the 1986 third-season Taming of the Shrew-themed episode of Moonlighting, entitled "Atomic Shakespeare", with Bruce Willis singing the Cavaliere vocal, as well as the 1987 first-season Wiseguy episode "No One Gets Out of Here Alive".

The song was also used as the theme for the 1989 television series Doctor Doctor.